First, consider that Shurat HaDin’s founder admitted to a U.S. diplomat that her group was founded with extensive help from the Mossad. Then consider that the NGO caters to terror-tourism by sponsoring tours for wealthy foreign intelligence enthusiasts who hear from Shabak agents who’ve assassinated Palestinians as part of Israel’s war on terrorism the Palestinian people. It offers an :

Then consider that Shurat HaDin is attempting to hold Khaled Meshal accountable for executing alleged collaborators who are being run by some of these same Shabak agents. Wouldn’t you say the group’s hypocrisy is showing just a bit?

Second, consider that Israel hasn’t signed the ICC protocol, in an attempt to keep its own generals and spymasters out of the Hague defendant’s chair. Why should the NGO of a nation too afraid of being tried for war crimes to join the ICC have any right to summon the officials of another putative state before the same court? If it wanted to have Meshal tried, then it should get its own government to sign on to the international covenant. Of course, groups like this always find a way to pull their shenanigans: Meshal holds a Jordanian passport and Jordan has signed on to the ICC. So it might theoretically be possible to bring him before the court using this legal ruse. Of course, Jordan would never ask the ICC to try Meshal, which makes no difference to those legal solons at Shurat HaDin.

Third, consider that Israel itself, when faced with its own “collaborators” (traitors, spies, and just plain fuck-ups) kidnaps them, tries them in secret and disappears them for years. In some instances they even end up dead at their own hand (Ben Zygier) or at the State’s hands (Avner Israel). In other instances like Mordecha Vanunu, they serve out their 18-year prison term and are still imprisoned in a country they loathe, prevented from emigrating to another country. The only difference between Hamas and Israel is that the latter doesn’t put a bullet in their collaborators’ brains.

Shurat HaDin is a bunch of pro-Israel buffoons in the same way that Anne Coulter is. But that’s not the point. It doesn’t matter that their arguments are stupid or silly. The point for them is that they engage in a campaign of petty harassment that ties up lawyers and keeps both the group’s name and the case in the limelight for years. They’ve done this with decades-long lawsuits against Arab banks for supposedly funding terror. They’ve done it by charging an Australian professor with hate speech for supporting BDS. Now, they’ve chosen to nip at the heels of Hamas.

One unforeseen result of this lunacy will be raising the notion of why, if Hamas is to be brought before the ICC, Israel shouldn’t join it there. That indeed is the $64,000 Question. The idea of seeing Bibi Netanyahu and Mohammed Dahlan sporting prison stripes in the Hague is something to contemplate.

Richard.
Part of the leaked cable reads, ” Leitner said that in many of her cases she receives evidence from GOI officials, and added that in its early years ILC took direction from the GOI [Government of Israel] on which cases to pursue.”
This leaked cable is from 2007. It’s from a 7 year old cable.

Leitner also said that ILC took direction form the Israeli Government in the ILC’s ‘in it’s early years’. When, in 2003? In 2004? That’s over ten years ago.

@ Black Canary: So your argument is that since the meeting at which Darshan-Leitner admitted Mossad affiliation was in 2007 that Shurat HaDin has now fully shed any affiliation with Israeli intelligence and is an entirely independent entity? If so, would you have any proof ShD has changed its structure or past practices in any meaningful way so as to convince us this is true? In other words, if Mossad once gave her direction why wouldn’t it continue to do so? And even if it severed connections with Mossad entirely, that would be because the group had so internalized Mossad’s objectives that it no longer even needed to consult with it. That still means Shurat HaDin is an asset of Israeli intelligence, just not as overtly as before.

There are only three ways that a war crime can be referred to the ICC:
a) The country upon whose soil the war crime took place refers the allegation to the ICC
b) The country whose citizen is alleged to have committed a crime refers the allegation to the ICC
c) The UN Security Council refers the allegation to the ICC.

Since…….
a) The alleged crime took place in Gaza, not in Israel, and
b) The alleged perpetrator of that crime is not an Israeli citizen, and
c) This NGO (whatever it may be) isn’t the UN Security Council,
then……. it can huff and it can puff as much as it wants, and it won’t achieve anything.

No Israeli organization – “governmental” or “non-government” – can refer this particular allegation to the ICC, precisely because the “preconditions” listed in Article 12 of the Rome Statute can not be satisfied.

“How dare Abbas try to seize the initiative and bend history his people’s way?” wrote Peter Beinart this week in Haaretz. “ He’s acting almost like a Zionist.”

Yes, it looks as if Israel is trying to deal the first blow. It is of course a chutzpah of chutzpahs, worthy of the people who coined the word. Neverthelesss it might work as hasbara, especially on the half-informed, that is most people.

It seems that this so-called NGO does have the right to file a complaint. I think that this possibility is opened by Article 15 : 1-3 of the Rome Statute which talks about the prosecutor taking the initiative for an investigation on the basis of information received. This is what Wikipedia says:

“The International Criminal Court’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, provides that individuals or organizations may submit information on crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court.[1] These submissions are referred to as “communications” or complaints to the International Criminal Court.
…]
Some of the communications received by the Prosecutor alleged that crimes had been committed on the territory of states parties to the Court, or by nationals of states parties: in such cases, the Court may automatically exercise jurisdiction. Other communications concerned conduct outside the jurisdiction of states parties: in these cases, the Court can only act if it has received a referral by the United Nations Security Council or a declaration by the relevant state allowing the Court to exercise jurisdiction.
Communications from individuals and organisations should not be confused with referrals from states parties or the United Nations Security Council”.

I am still puzzled by Professor Francis Boyle’s statement that the Palestinians should on no account approach the ICC, which I quoted earlier this week. According to him the prosecutor would “decapitate” the entire PLO leadership and the PLO would be back where it was before 1964. His advice was to approach the International Court of Justice with the complaint of genocide which Israel is guilty of according to the relevant criteria. Perhaps earlier rather than later this should be done anyway because the pattern seems to be clear by now. Right wing Israel, now in the ascendancy, wants the whole of Palestine but without the Palestinians.
Could this NGO’s move be a deliberate provocation designed to induce the Palestinians to do what Boyle advised them against?

Abbas and the Fatah, being bought and paid for by Israel, are going to put out a lot of hot air but are highly unlikely to press ICC charges against Israel. Hamas, being the only legitimately-elected “government” might try, but I doubt if the UN’s defenders of Israel, will permit that.

Arie: “I think that this possibility is opened by Article 15 : 1-3 of the Rome Statute which talks about the prosecutor taking the initiative for an investigation on the basis of information received.”

That statement is untrue in this case. The relevant line in the Rome Statute is this: “The Prosecutor may initiate investigations proprio motu on the basis of information on crimes WITHIN THE JURISDICTION OF THE COURT”.

So the first question she has to ask is not “is this information credible?”
The first question is actually this “do I have jurisdiction over this alleged crime?”

And the answer as it currently stands is “No”.

Israel can not grant her that jurisdiction because Meshal is not an Israeli citizen, nor is Gaza “Israeli territory”.

Palestine can give her that jurisdiction by either signing the Rome Statute or by accepting the ad-hoc jurisdiction of the court, but so far Abbas has done neither.

Until he does then it doesn’t matter how compelling the evidence compiled by Shurat HaDin is/isn’t, that alone is NOT enough to authorize her to open an investigation “proprio motu”, precisely because while Shurat HaDin **can** give her any information it please that NGO **can’t** bring this alleged crime “within the jurisdiction of the court”.

And Article 15 very explicitly says that the alleged crime has to be “within the jurisdiction of the court” before the prosecutor can go Pope-like on it.

Richard,,since you don’t like this idea, what is the next best option to help the families of victims who,were murdered by Hamas? I recently read that none of them, by the way, were Israeli intelligence assets. Do you not feel badly for these victims?

I’m repulsed by pro-Israel types like you who adopt fake Arab names here. It’s insulting & indicates an inclination to dissemble, all of which I find unacceptable. What’s hilarious about this is that you don’t even know how to spell “Khan.” You instead use the spelling of a Jewish family name “Kahn.”

@ Fake Arab Kahn: This is a stupid game. I strongly object to people adopting nicknames that conceal their identity, especially behind a fake Arab persona. You may not comment using this nickname again. You may adopt a nickname that reflects, rather than disguises your identity.

My name is Amiran Cohen. My parents are of Israeli descent but grew up in South Africa.
In the 1980’s There was an outstanding cricketer from Pakistan named Imran Khan. Since I too was a good cricketer, I was given the nickname Imran Kahn by my schoolmates. Amiran = Imran, Cohen = Kahn.
And there you have it.

“Imran”, drop your defensive posture and consider the slaughter you are supporting.
I will even agree…just for the sake of discussion…that Israeli Jews are doing the right thing when they light into Palestinian Chriatians and Muslims BUT only if the shoe fits the other foot as well. Talk to me about justifying mass murder of Palestinians when Israeli Police and “Defense” forces shoot Orthodox Jews who hurl rocks at other Jews on sabbath.
Go ahead and propose the destruction of Jewish homes (probably stolen from Palestinians in the first place) every time Jews kill Arabs.
Show me the last time Israel confiscated 4000 Duamns of land from Jews just because a Jew killed an Arab.
Oh yes, please propose that Israeli soldiers “mow the grass” periodically and kill a few militant Jewish leaders.

If you cannot do all this, then please keep your self-righteous questions to oyurself.
By the way, how did you cook up your name?

I wish you reserved some of your new-found compasion for Palestinian collaborators, for the thousands of Palestinians slaughtered and maimed by Israel, as well.
Throughout history, collaborators and spies have not been treated well, especially when their collaboration efforts result in mass slaughter. I have no sympathies for those dogs.

Israel has cultivated a deep skill in making the abmormal (its behavior) become normal in the eyes of the world. It uses language (“Terrorists”, “Murdered”, Kidnapped”, “Democracy”, “Existential Threat” etc.,), cajoling arm-twisting and threats to bring the powerful countires to come around and praise the Emperor’s new clothes.

Apparently Meshal has Jordanian nationality. Jordan is a party to the ICC.

The crucial line in Art.15 is in my view this: …]
“Some of the communications received by the Prosecutor alleged that crimes had been committed on the territory of states parties to the Court, OR BY NATIONALS OF STATES PARTIES; in such cases, the Court may automatically exercise jurisdiction.

Meshal is such a national, so the court may automatically exercise jurisdiction.

@ Arie Brand: The first thing the ICC would do is ask Jordan to investigate the charges since he is a Jordanian citizen. Jordan will likely beg off & possibly even give a credible legal reason not to investigate (it might conceivably say that the actions were not committed on Jordanian soil & so it has no credible way of investigating them). Then the ICC will be left with a decision whether to take the case, which I very much doubt they would do. It would look very bad to investigate an alleged Palestinian war criminal w/o also investigating an Israeli.

Well yes, but the question was whether the ICC has jurisdiction in this case, and apparently it has. It would indeed be a travesty if the prosecutor would only pick this up though Fox News is already discussing this as if it would be the most normal thing in the world. And for those who get their news from that and similar sources it probably would be. And it seems that Professor Boyle wouldn’t be surprised either, but for quite different reasons.

I exchanged some emails with Professor Boyle and asked him whether I had his permission to publish the answers. He said that that was OK.

I asked him about his advice to the Palestinians not to deal with the ICC and especially about that puzzling sentence that the prosecutor will “decapitate” the PLO leadership:

In the first instance he forwarded to me a letter which he had sent earlier to some other addressees. Here it is:

“ICC: The White Man’s Court. And Bensouda is Black Skin, White Masks. Fab.
Professor Boyle: Thank you Kuda, my best to all my friends in Africa.
Kudakwashe: Thank you very much for joining us once again on Heart of Africa, we value your knowledge and your desire to share your knowledge with us…..Kudakwashe: Ok, thank you Professor. Now can we move to the ICC? The ICC – why was it set up, and how was it set up because what we know in Africa is that the ICC seems to be the legal tool against African leaders especially of after some of the renowned people like Reverend Desmond Tutu have actually called for Tony Blair and George Bush to be tried by the ICC.
Professor Boyle: Again, you are certainly correct. The ICC has become the white man’s court, the court for the white Western colonial imperialist states to go after African leaders. We might say some of them are unsavoury, ok, but, so far everyone, the ICC has gone after has been from Africa. The ICC refused to go and do anything about Tony Blair despite the fact that British lawyers filed a perfectly correct complaint legally against Blair. He refused to do it, and Bishop Tutu was definitely correct. Likewise, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, I filed a complaint with the ICC in 2010, that was technically correct over the policy of extraordinary rendition, which is a euphemism for the enforced disappearance of human beings and their torture done in some African countries and in the Middle East and Asian countries. So far the ICC has refused to do anything to go after Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeild, Rice, or any of their lawyers involved in this policy. I advised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, set the jurisdiction of the ICC for the Israeli crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity against the Palestinians, and the ICC prosecutor dismissed this complaint under completely bogus grounds that Palestine is not a state despite the fact that it is a member state of UNESCO, which is a specialised UN agency, its ridiculous to say its not a state. We can go on with this least forever. Basically, the ICC will not touch American, British, Israeli, European war criminals and genociders, the simply won’t. So, it is a completely political court. We have this problem then, they decided to put a black skin on a white mask, now they have appointed Miss Bensouda, from Africa but thats simply to deceive the Africans into believing that this is really a fair, impartial court which is, is not. You have to look at who pays, most of the bills for the ICC. He who pays the piper calls the tune. And thats Europe, Japan, South Korea, the major funders. So, of course they are not going to go for major war criminals United States, Britain, Israel, they are simply not going to do it. They made that perfectly clear since they were founded. My advice to African states who are not parties yet to the ICC, is to not join, not cooperate with it. And if possible, I would say, pull out. Because Ms Bensouda reminds me again of Frantz Fanon – black skin, white mask. She’s just in there as propaganda, to delude African states and peoples to believe, and as you correctly said, the ICC is just a tool, of white racist Western colonial imperial powers. I’m very sorry, I originally supported the ICC, as I know, Africa did too. But after 10 years, thats all we’ve seen. The only people we see in the doc are black African petty thugs, where the major war criminals, genociders, United States, France, have not even been pursued. The ICC has just rejected at all to do anything about them, even though lawyers such as myself, British lawyers, Palestinian lawyers, have created prima facie case that clearly mandated investigation of prosecution. They were just summarily dismissed. My advice to African states – this is apparently a trap that has been set for you – simply to pull out. Pull out of the ICC, its not doing you any good. Its gonna only be used to hurt you.”

Since this did not provide an answer to the question
about the “decapitation” of the Palestinian leadership I asked him about that again. He then wrote:

“Well, I think your listener is correct. These days its far from the role it used to play in Africa where as you know the United Nations worked specifically for the decolonisation of Africa from the white racists Western colonial imperial powers. Now what we are seeing is the United Nations basically helping white racists Western colonial imperial powers re-colonising Africa. So I personally would not believe anything the United Nations is saying or doing because Secretary General Ban ki Moon is a flunky for the United States. The United States gave him the job. He does whatever the Americans tell him to do.”

If Ms.Fatou Bensouda, the ICC prosecutor, would decide to go after Mishal she would perhaps do so on the basis of Article 30 of the Hague Convention of 1907 “Laws and Customs of War on Land” which states that a spy captured behind enemy lines on land may only be punished following a trial.

Was there a State of War between Israel and Hamas? Well, though in my view it was one-sided slaughter not deserving the name “war” it was Israel that consistently called it so.

I don’t know whether there are any formal criteria for a trial as meant in
art. 30 of that Hague Convention. I imagine those would be hard to follow in a war situation. At any case, I seem to remember that there was talk of a trial of sorts.

For what it is worth Article 106 of the US uniform code of military justice
provides for a mandatory death sentence for spies.

Well you are right in the sense that, presumably, there won’t be a direct reference to that particular Hague Convention as such, but it stands to reason that after one and a half century of law making in this area existing conventions have fed into the Rome Statute. It was not designed from scratch.

The legal advisor at the Legal Division of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Knut Dörmann, recognises that explicitly in his treatise “War Crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court …” (in A.von Bogdandy and R.Wolfrum (eds), Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law Vol.7 2003 pp.341-407 online http://www.mpil.de/files/pdf3/mpunyb_doermann_7.pdf

In talking about the Rome Statute he says: “The second category of war crimes covers other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflicts. They reproduce to a large extent rules from the 1907 Hague Convention respecting the laws and customs of War on Land…” etc. (he mentions three other less important sources).

Now I might be mistaken but I believe that the particular article of the Hague Convention of 1907 I referred to can be found back in a wider form in Art. 8 2.c.IV of the Rome Statute which signals as a war crime: “The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all judicial guarantees which are generally recognised as indispensable”.

This is among the rules regarding conflicts that are not international. Since Gaza is still considered to be occupied territory the recent slaughter there was not an international conflict.

THE HAGUE (JPost) Aug. 5, 2014 – PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki said that the Palestinians were now preparing to join the International Criminal Court in order to file war crimes charges against Israel.The PA has been facing growing pressure from Palestinians to join the ICC in order to bring war crime charges against Israel, particularly in the aftermath of the Protection Edge military operation.

Malki met with officials of the ICC in The Netherlands to discuss the war in the Gaza Strip. Malki’s office said that the purpose of the meeting was to inquire about the legal procedures required for the “State of Palestine” to join the ICC and sign the courts founding treaty, the Rome Statute, in order to take action against possible Israeli war crimes.

Apartheid was declared to be a crime against humanity, with a scope that went far beyond South Africa. While the crime of apartheid is most often associated with the racist policies of South Africa after 1948, the term more generally refers to racially based policies in any state.”

Critics have accused Israel of committing the crime of apartheid; In a 2007 report, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestine John Dugard stated that “elements of the [state of Israel’s] occupation constitute forms of colonialism and of apartheid, which are contrary to international law.” and suggested that the “legal consequences of a prolonged occupation with features of colonialism and apartheid” be put to the International Court of Justice.

PS That’s why Netanyahu and the Israeli governemnt were not amused when John Kerry ased the words “apartheid” and the state of Israel.

The best way to achieve a quick prosecution would be to bring it under Article 8, 2.(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute of the ICC, which declares as a war crime: “The transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”. Since the ICJ has already determined that the settlement program constitutes such a transfer, a prosecution of those Israeli Government Ministers authorizing it would be a ‘slam-dunk’.

I agree, and I don’t understand why there is so much attention paid to the “flashier” allegations against the likes of Ofer Winter.

After all, when it is all said and done he is nothing but a brigade commander, small fry by any standard.

But the settlement enterprise is a slam-dunk, as you say, and it would lead to the indictment of the entire Israeli cabinet, and those dudes are Very Big Fish Indeed.

The settlements are Israeli colonies established inside an Israeli-occupied territory, and that’s an unambiguous violation of Article VII(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute.

More than that, the cabinet actually boasts about how settlement construction is government POLICY – not the “mistake” of some over-enthusiastic official, but POLICY – and the paper-trail leading back to those cabinet decisions is there for all to see.

In terms of the political aims of the Palestinians it is a far, far more important goal to get the ICC to prosecute Israeli politicians for eating away at the very territorial viability of the state of Palestine than it is to see some sociopath like Ofer Winter being clapped behind bars because he couldn’t keep his howitzers inside his trousers.

Experience a dynamic and intensive eight day exploration of Israel’s struggle for survival and security in the Middle East today: “a military, humanitarian, historical, judicial, religious, and political reality check.”

Mission Highlights
○ Briefings by Mossad officials and commanders of the Shin Bet.
○ Briefing by officers in the IDF Intelligence and Operations branches.
○ Inside tour of the IAF unit who carries out targeted killings.
○ Live exhibition of penetration raids in Arab territory.
○ Observe a trial of Hamas terrorists in an IDF military court.
○ First hand tours of the Lebanese front-line military positions and the Gaza border check-points.
○ Inside tour of the controversial Security Fence and secret intelligence bases.
○ Meeting Israel’s Arab agents who infiltrate the terrorist groups and provide real-time intelligence.
○ Briefing by Israel’s war heros who saved the country.
○ Meetings with senior Cabinet Ministers and other key policymakers.
○ Small airplane tour of the Galilee, Jeep rides in the Golan heights, water activities on Lake
○ Kinneret, a cook-out barbecue and a Shabbat enjoying the rich religious and historic wonders of Jerusalem’s Old City.

ImageThe world Jewish community is under attack by the various Islamic terror organizations and, by extension, their anti-Semitic supporters.

Israel is an unmistakable focal point of the “Global Jihad,” but its reach and effect is being felt everywhere around the world. By proxy, all democratic nations have reluctantly discovered that they too are becoming victims of this “clash of civilizations” and are similarly being targeted.

A range of responses to this global terror network has been attempted with mixed success. However, over the past few years, one organization has emerged as a leader in the fight to preserve and defend the basic human rights of the Jewish People, Israel and the West.

This organization is Shurat HaDin.

PS As morality check, Norman Finkelstein wrote the Ultimate Mission to Deutschland.

The Tel Aviv based civil rights group, Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, has announced it will be hosting another of it’s “Ultimate Mission to Israel” this May 26, through June 2, 2014. The organization which pioneered the use of civil lawsuits and legal actions against the Palestinian and Islamic terrorist organizations in courtrooms worldwide, has been conducting cutting-edge tours of Israel since 2003.The eight day long May trip promises to provide participants with a behind the scenes view of the extreme security challenges the Jewish State is currently facing.